Kincade took one of my arms and Brock took the other. They lifted me clear off the ground and carried me away from the crowd. They took me behind the bar and didn’t put me down until we’d reached a little gazebo on the far side of the lodge. Gently, they set me down on a bench. Before I could say anything, a voice came from the direction of the lodge.
Jessie was hurrying toward us. “I didn’t know where you guys went. I got ice.”
I caught Kincade’s eye and we burst into laughter, Brock joining us.
Jessie jogged up, a plastic bag full of ice in his hand. He knelt in front of me and examined my ankle. “Where does it hurt?”
That made us laugh harder while Jessie stared at us as if we were insane.
Finally, Kincade clapped him on the back good-naturedly. “Does anyone else ever wonder why this guy hasn’t lost his entire fortune to a Nigerian prince?”
That made me laugh so hard I almost started choking. I could just see Jessie communicating with an internet scammer, far too polite to break it off.
Unbelievably, Jessie still hadn’t caught on. I took the ice bag from him and set it on the floor. Then I took his hand and tugged until he was sitting next to me. “Thank you, but I’m feeling much better now.”
Brock’s laugh was deep, rumbly, and very sexy, but he finally got it under control long enough to clue Jessie in. “She was faking it.”
Understanding finally lit Jessie’s earnest face and then he shook his head. “Now I feel really dumb.”
“Don’t,” I said, squeezing his hand. “I’m not usually so devious, but those two bring out the worst in me.”
“Or the best.” Kincade’s expression was full of admiration. “You were amazing. But for the record, we don’t approve of women faking it in all situations.”
His tone flipped a switch inside me, and I went from amused to turned on in half a second. He was good at doing that.
Jessie was apparently still thinking about our escape. “That’s twice now that you’ve rescued me from them.”
“This time, she rescued all of us,” Kincade said.
That caught my attention. “Wait, all of you? But you’re their stepbrother.”
“That doesn’t stop them from hitting on him,” Brock pointed out.
Somehow, that didn’t surprise me as much as it should have.
Jessie just shook his head. Then he said, “So what’s the plan for tonight?”
“My immediate plan is to go to the bar and liberate a bottle of wine for us,” Kincade said.
“I can get behind that plan,” I said and he winked at me.
“But I meant about later. Are you staying with us again?” Jessie asked.
My breath caught in my throat. If either of the other two had asked me that, I might read something more into it, but not Jessie. “I—I can’t spend the whole week hiding out at your place at night. People would talk.”
“You can’t go back with them,” Brock said. “They were going to let you hurt yourself last night.” Evidently Jessie had filled in the other two about what had happened.
“I’m not going to even try to climb up to that loft. My feet are staying firmly on the floor. I’ll be okay.”
“Just stay with us,” Kincade said. “It’s a big bed—plenty of room for all three of us.”
My eyes flashed to Brock, wondering if he’d offer to share his bed. I’d peeked in his room this morning as I left. His bed was queen-size, just like Jessie and Kincade’s had been. I still didn’t know if he’d had a woman in there last night. If so, I couldn’t think who it could be. But one thing was for sure—he wasn’t in any hurry to invite me to sleep next to him.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but after all, it’s not like I could take any of them up on their offer. “Thanks, guys, but I’ll be fine.”
Kincade shook his head, and Jessie sighed. “In that case, we have a Plan B.”
“What?”
“We liberated a rollaway cot from the lodge,” Kincade said.
I pictured the ones I’d seen before in hotel rooms—they were big and bulky. A mattress with a metal stand, usually folded in two with wheels at the bottom. “You stole it?”
Kincade laughed. “We bribed a bellboy to go into the part of the lodge with the storm damage and grab one for us.”
“Thank you,” I said. In a way, I was disappointed that I wouldn’t spend the night snuggled up between Jessie and Kincade. It was ironic—it had horrified me to wake up that way this morning. Now it was something I wanted badly. But it wasn’t right. What if my family saw me going in there? Or if Doug dropped by to have a beer with the guys?
Brock’s dark eyes were on mine. “We took it over to your cabin earlier. No one was there, so we put it on the porch.”